Empowering Remote Teams: The Role of SD-WAN in Modern Businesses

The networking system is undergoing huge changes thanks to changes in work profiles in modern businesses. Organisations are embracing a remote workforce, mobile workforce, and temporary work environments. Traditional networks cannot manage the new work system. The introduction of remote work during the global pandemic is continuing, with organisations and workforces both comfortable with this type of work culture. This remote working has prompted organisations to alter their approach towards network connectivity by embracing new technological advancements.

SD-WAN is the latest WAN architecture that boosts remote users’ reliability, connectivity and security.

Challenges faced by remote teams
Traditional networks do not support the centralised distribution of work. Today, most organisations are moving to a remote work culture, and SD-WAN is making this possible. With SD-WAN, employees operating from remote locations, home offices, co-working spaces, and on the move can enjoy seamless connectivity irrespective of location.
The remote workforce experiences challenges in terms of bandwidth constraints, latency and security threats. Remote workers accessing corporate networks can put the organisation under threat. Here is how SD-WAN transforms remote work connectivity:
SD-WAN technology is a game changer for remote users as it adheres to software-defined networking principles. It offers scalable, agile, and affordable connectivity solutions, compared to traditional WAN, which is expensive and hardware-dependent.

Advantages of SD-WAN

• Optimising network traffic: It directs data packets via the most efficient path in real-time. Optimising network traffic can save time and resources.
• Intelligent traffic routing: Intelligent traffic routing mechanisms allow remote workers to enjoy consistent performance and responsiveness. Thus, irrespective of location and network conditions, the user can enjoy uninterrupted connectivity.
• Encrypting traffic: SD-WAN offers excellent security features with end-to-end traffic encryption to protect sensitive data. SD-WAN secures from unauthorised access.
• Robust authentication: SD-WAN implements encryption and authentication mechanisms to protect from data breaches and cyber threats. With SD-WAN, corporate data will remain confidential.

Organisations have long used WAN architecture to connect branches and remote offices. However, traditional WAN architecture lags in security, network performance, and data transfer. Organisations are moving towards remote work, and SD-WAN is considered a safe bet.

Securing remote access through SD-WAN

• SD-WAN helps optimise performance by providing secure access to remote workers, enabling them to collaborate and work efficiently from anywhere on the globe.
• VPN capabilities help establish secure tunnels between data centres and remote endpoints, providing a seamless secure channel for communication.
• Another important security feature of SD-WAN is granular access control and segmentation policies. Administrators can enforce security policies based on application categories. With SD-WAN, the risk of threats and unauthorised data leakage can be eliminated.

SD-WAN can integrate with cloud security services like firewalls, intrusion detection/prevention systems, and web gateways. This corporate security feature is crucial for remote endpoints. By deploying cloud-native security solutions, an organisation can be protected from evolving cyber threats. With SD-WAN, there is no need for expensive hardware devices, complex configurations, or applications.

Enhance user experience
SD-WAN improves the overall experience for remote workers through its technological marvels. SD-WAN boosts collaboration, engagement and productivity. It gives employees an edge with access to critical business applications for quick responsiveness and optimised performance.
SD-WAN supports QoS policies for mission-critical traffic over less time-sensitive applications, such as web browsing and video conferencing. The traffic prioritisation mechanism is crucial for business functions to be operational even with restricted bandwidth. SD-WAN helps remote employees improve their performance multifold.

Flexibility and scalability
Now, you can shift your off-site team within no time with the flexibility of SD-WAN. Moreover, organisations can scale up and down their resource and bandwidth for greater flexibility depending on the workload even if you increase your remote workforce without compromising on network performance.

Implementing SD-WAN for a remote workforce
To start with, you should understand your network requirements for your remote employees, such as latency levels, bandwidth volume, and safety elements. Based on these factors, you can personalise your SD-WAN architecture. Next comes choosing an appropriate SD-WAN solution. There is no one-size-fits-all in the world of networking. Each business is unique, and the solutions have to be customised to meet its business needs. Integrating with the existing system is crucial for a cohesive networking environment.

SMOAD SD-WAN solutions offer seamless solutions to power your business. Enjoy uninterrupted connectivity with centralised control over the network for boundless reach. With an SMOAD full-stack solution, you can improve the performance of your remote workforce.

To find out how, call us for a demo!